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©TIE
2004-2008
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I'm a history buff, which is one of
the reasons I enjoy Jenny
White's novels.
She is
intimately familiar with the history
and culture of Istanbul and
Turkey, having lived and studied here
for years in connection with her work
in social anthropology.
Her first novel, The Sultan's
Seal, introduces Kamil
Pasha, the Ottoman magistrate,
orchid collector, aesthete and
eligible bachelor who works to
untangle the mysteries of the murder
of a young, blonde English governess
in the imperial harem.
The story draws you into the heart
of 19th-century Istanbul, which is
to say the heart of Ottoman
Turkey,
at a critical time: some in the empire
see threats to its existence posed
by the march of progress, others cling
ferociously to the empire's glorious
past and thus imperil the future. We
know the outcome. They did not, and
Jenny White captures this tension admirably.
As a writer, I admire the author's
sensitive, evocative descriptions of
the city, its natural beauty, its contradictions
both subtle and overt.
Jenny
White sees Istanbul at its best and
worst, as she does its people, their
hearts and desires.
Decadent? No more
decadent, perhaps, than the human heart
itself.
The Sultan's Seal,
by Jenny White
New York& London: W W Norton
& Company, 2006
ISBN 978-0-393-06099-3, 352 pages,
US$24.95
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Above, the
book. Left, the author.
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